superfly78209

iTrader: (1)

thx for the responses. I agree that adding an amp would be good but i can't stress the fact that there isn't ANY bass when there should be at least some. When I fade all the way to the rears(which are my 17c2's) all my bass goes away. Only my up front stockies throw out some bass. I can turn bass all the way up, all the way down, volume up or volume down. Doesn't make a diff. I put the speaker settings on oem factory and then on aftermarket 6.5s and still no difference. I put sp1 and sp2 on and still no diff. I even put bass boost on. If they won't have any bass right now how in the world are they going to get some in the future? it's like I have some panasonic 5 1/2s. thanks

Never Satisfied

I understand that at some point things can get too technical and scare people (as I get the feeling Bill's post did you), but at the same time... when somebody offers up a different explaination than every one else, it contributes more to the discussion than everybody saying exactly the same thing.

If the technical discussion starts to confuse somebody, all they have to do is ask for explainations in simpler terms, by doing that, everybody will benefit.

But, to get back on topic... if you are getting no "bass" at all from your speakers, you might want to make sure you check over all of the settings on your headunit. There is a possibility that you may have something set that stops lower frequencies from being sent to the speakers in question.

Am I correct in understanding that you have stockers up front and the aftermarkets in the rear? If so, this will give you an unbalanced sound and should not be used as a basis for comparing the stock speaker output to what you think it should be. Try upgrading all of the speakers to be the same thing, then set everything up. If it still sounds lacking (as I'm sure it probably will) try going with an amp to help clean up the power and give it more "*****" (sorry, term we use at my shop that is just substituted for impact, strength, etc.) If you still aren't satisfied with the bass response at that point, consider adding a small subwoofer. You don't need to go crazy like most of the guys on here do. You can get a nice strong sound that is well balanced just by putting in something like a 10" JL W1 with a 200 watt amp, and you won't lose much space either.

Just some thoughts that might help you in your quest for better sound.

NoTec

iTrader: (4)

BS in EE with minor in Audio engineering. AS in CS. Installed for several years while I was in school. I don't think anyone on here is going to get too technical for me in audio or electronics let alone simple things such as radios and speakers. BillAce's posts are second to none for correctness and relevant informative content. I generally agree with him. But sometimes, people would like quick and easy replies that result in a solution.

Back on topic now. What he is describing, it sounds like his speakers are out of phase like I said before. Without getting technical, the OP needs to check to make sure the positive and negative wires from the car are on the correct terminals. He hasn't posted if he checked this yet. Something that simple could be the reason he has poor bass performance. It happens to a lot of people. Easy enough, right. Goodluck.

AF-Evo8

iTrader: (113)

You sir are absolutely wrong take it from me i was an installer for 6 years before i went into the military and if you have leads switched on one of your 6.5's it will degrade the output of the pair trust me and double check the polarity. as stated in the post above the polarity causes them to be 180 deg out of phase.

superfly78209

iTrader: (1)

sweet im gonna try to switch the negs and positives, that can't mess up anything right? also what does 180 deg out of phase mean? and could I have permantely messed up my speakers by playing them with the wrong polarity? thanks

NoTec

iTrader: (4)

You have to know what your looking for and play with the fade and balance while doing this. No it wont cause any problems with your setup. It would cause an proabably cause an issue if two speakers were in an enclosure and subjected to this at high volumes for a long period of time. As BillAce was stating ealier with phasing, speaker phasing is not completely dependent on how your wires are connected because with certain processors, phasing can be controlled at will. Proper phasing is what is important. But in your case, by 180 degrees out of phase, we mean that your speakers are playing in opposite directions of each other when they should be moving together. If you here one speaker, by itself, it'll sound fine and the same with the other. If you here them both together, thats when you get a cancelling effect of different frequencies in your music. It is usually more discernable in lower frequencies to the untrained or inexperienced ear. And to answer your last question, for your setup, its not likely that you can or will cause any issues. Check your PM's. Goodluck.

BillAce

iTrader: (2)

i will try to keep it simple...Think of musical signal as a wave travelling up to a crest and back down. The frequency is the number of times per secondit travels up and down. Your speaker will not only play one frequency at a time or you are listening to test tones. You hear the mixing of sounds at a given moment and stereo recording gives our stereo head (2 ears) location information.

Phase looks a lot like the wavelength of a frequency, it travels up to 180 degrees posetive phase, back to zero and down to 180 degrees negative phase. it is constantly changing and is related to the frequency, speaker distance to your ears, reflections and other factors. The location of your head will change the phasing. So technically 180 degrees isn't out of phase either since there are many phase points in between. It isn't this or that, its from here to there.

I have seen this hundreds of times with my IASYS audio analyzer that displays real time phase, bandwidth, time, Frequency center, xover points and volume by frequecy among other things in car at a fixed position.

Back in the day a mediocre speaker company trained their dealers and recommended in their installation manual that the passenger midrange speaker be wired electrically opposite to provide better imaging and staging. Generally, I find this to be valid in my testing/measuring but not a rule. They took the car audio world by storm and dominated the early days of sound quality competition. They were MB Quart.